KESWICK HALL, College of Education

David Wright - publications and more.

Former Keswick Hall Lecturer Honoured

David Wright (who was on the staff of Keswick Hall from 1969 to 1981) has been honoured by the Royal Geographical Society. Former recipients include Michael Palin and other famous 'names'.

David received the Ness Award 2008 from the Royal Geographical Society for 'the popularisation of geography among young people'. Further information, and a list of past recipients, may be seen at www.rgs.org

Inspiring work wins David an award

Inspiring - David and Jill Wright.

11 June 2008

Their books have inspired millions of children around the globe.

Since first being published in 1987, young people have relied on Philip's Children's Atlas to find out about the countries of the world - and to pass those all important geography exams. And now, David Wright, co-author of the atlas with his wife Jill, has been honoured with a prestigious Royal Geographical Society (RGS) award.

Mr Wright, 68, from Mulbarton, received the Ness Award 2008 for “the popularisation of geography among young people” at the society's AGM. Former recipients of the award include Monty Python actor and writer Michael Palin and survival expert Ray Mears.

Mr Wright, who is battling liver cancer, said he was honoured to have been chosen as this year's recipient of the award. He said: “It came as a complete surprise. I opened the post and there was yet another hospital appointment and then there was this letter saying I had won this award. I am very pleased, it is a real honour.” Now in its 12th edition, the highly-acclaimed illustrated world atlas has sold over a million copies and is used by children all over the world. The atlas has also won the Geographical Association's award for making a significant contribution to geography.

Yesterday, Mr Wright said at first he feared he would not be able to complete work on two new atlases for younger children because of his ill-health. But he said he was delighted when his daughter Rachel Noonan offered to help with Philip's Early Years and Infant School atlases.
He said: “It is lovely because when my wife and I were doing the atlas our children were our expert advisors. Now my daughter is a co-author and our grandchildren are our expert advisors.”
Mr Wright said that while it was a tremendous honour to receive the award he wished his wife could also have been recognised.
He said he thought it was presented solely to him because he is a fellow of the RGS and his wife is not a member. “We are co-authors and I think it should have been a joint award,” he said.
The Wrights met as teacher trainers and have travelled all over the world researching educational books or gathering more information for their atlas.
The couple moved to Norfolk from London when Mr Wright took up a post at the Keswick Teacher Training College, which later became part of the University of East Anglia.

From the:

Interview with David Wright former Geography lecturer, Keswick Hall College of Education, Norwich

Author of: Philip’s Early Years Atlas, by David Wright (with Rachel Noonan)

49pp, £6.99; Spring 2009. ISBN 978-0-540-09120-1

1 An Atlas for 3-4-5 year olds, but why?
There is this fantastic phrase in the Early Years Curriculum, “Develop Knowledge and Understanding of the world”. And I thought “Brilliant! Let’s go for it!”
2 But 3-4-5s are still into ‘lift the flap’ books, aren’t they?
Yes, but most of them LOVE to find out about the real world too. A real volcano is even more exciting than a pretend volcano! They like to “get real”. ‘Lift the flaps’ quickly get damaged and cost a lot of money. And you get far fewer pages when you use card. 49 big pages for £6.99 seems a better deal to me!
3 But how can you introduce the big wide world to little children?
We jump in a hot-air balloon, and float to somewhere exciting, then we jump out and explore an evocative picture of a volcano, or a coral reef, a big city, or 100 other places.
4 How do the maps fit in?
Each balloon has its own colour, and a balloon of the SAME colour is on the map. So we can spot where it lands. We’ll get the idea that blue on the maps is sea, green is lowland, and, little by little, we’ll make more sense of our planet, and start to understand maps.
5 How do you choose what to include?
We have to miss out thousands of exciting places. Some of our choices are “must haves” we can’t miss out, such as London and Paris. But we also have unexpected elements that grown-ups don’t know about. One of my favourites is a porcupine in Kazakhstan!
6 How did you get involved with this project?
I am co-author, with Jill [my wife] of ‘Philip’s Children’s Atlas’ for 7 to 11 year olds. This book has sold over a million copies worldwide. We felt that younger children deserved their own atlases, and suggested two, one for 5-7s and one for 3-5s.
7 Any crises while writing them both?
Yes, plenty! No sooner had I signed the contract than cancer re-appeared, with 3 big operations and chemotherapy. We decided we’d better cancel the contract. But then our daughter said “Don’t cancel, I’ll help”. I decided I really needed a big project to take my mind off cancer. Some of it was written during my 7 hospital stays!
8 Father/daughter, not an easy partnership?
Rachel became co-author and organiser, and the partnership worked surprisingly well. I know lots about geography and authorship, but my illness meant I had little day-to-day contact with young children. Rachel has an up-to-date degree from the Open University, and works as a classroom assistant with young children. I’m sure I was difficult to work with at times, but cancer means everyone is nice to me!
9 Will the Atlas be popular?
We’ll see! It‘s already advertised on websites - Norway, Canada, and Japan as well as the UK! It’s not perfect, nothing in this world is, but I hope a lot of children will enjoy exploring the world though the pictures, maps and text of our Atlas.

David Wright [Keswick Hall 1969-1981, Geog] is co-author of 2 new atlases for young children, with his daughter Rachel Noonan:

Philip’s Early Years Atlas for children aged 3, 4, and 5 . 50pp £6.99

Philip’s Infant School Atlas for children aged 5, 6, and 7 . 50pp £6.99

[Philip’s Children’s Atlas for children aged 7-12 is now in its 12^th edition]

He hopes that former K.H. students will spot that the K.H. child-centred emphasis lives on in these new atlases.

10 questions ……. and some answers

about Philip’s Infant School Atlas David Wright and Rachel Noonan

49 pages, £6.99. Published March 2009. ISBN 978-0-540-09121-8

1 Can we start with the idea ‘I want to go there’ – wherever ‘there’ might be?

Yes – this was our starting-point. Young children start with the visual image – but it MUST be ‘child-friendly’ if it is to register with them. So we chose nearly 200 child-friendly pictures.

2 Can we make map-reading fun and painless, as well as worthwhile?

Maps should be a joy, not a burden, for every age-group – but especially for young children. We want to switch kids on to maps, not put them off. So we launched our ‘special ingredient’ – the hot-air balloon! The balloon links a photo of a real place with the real place on the map. The children will notice that blue is for water, that green is lowland and brown is highland – and map skills will develop from this starting-point.

3 Can we make literacy enjoyable?

Well, at least we tried! We hope that kids will be enthused by the pic, and then WANT to know what the words say about the pic. Motivation helps literacy to develop.

4 Can we choose worthwhile facts?

Yes – but only where picture and text has been carefully linked. Worthwhile facts which switch kids off are no good. The sequence is START with the picture > move to map and text > work towards understanding a worthwhile fact and concept. We also try to convey the beauty and fragility of the world’s environments – a step towards environmental education.

5 How can we deal with complicated names? Aren’t they too difficult?

These children are the same children who know all these amazing dinosaur names – and amaze adults with their knowledge. Dinosaurs are millions of years away; by contrast, the remotest countries are only thousands of miles away. They don’t have to know these names – yet, if invited, many kids will love to sort out Kazakhstan from Kyrgyzstan, and help the adults to catch up with to-day’s world.

6 Can we identify key facts worth emphasising?

We have found that most adults haven’t a clue about which are the ten most populous countries in the world. Children like to discover the ‘top 10’ – and are amazed when they discover that 4^th place is a country that they didn’t even know existed. [4^th place? Indonesia!]

7 How can we explain to kids the relative sizes of countries?

Adults are not good at this either – they are too familiar with maps which exaggerate the size of cold lands, and diminish the size of 100 tropical countries. So our first step was to INSIST on equal-area world maps. We have also kept good shapes of land - very important for kids – by making cuts in the oceans. Now we can see which are the really BIG countries.

8 Can we go wider than photos and maps?

YES. For example, we are keen to use postage-stamps. They really come from a faraway country, and are chosen and approved by people IN that country – unlike photos. A good postage-stamp has a really bold message – not just the picture, but the design, the currency. We BANNED bad artwork – there is so much bad artwork for kids, in so many books.

We have included some excellent, accurate artwork of animals and birds. Enjoy!

9 Is a glossary helpful and practicable?

We have created a PICTURE GLOSSARY: with the picture as the starting point, the words can make sense. We have reprinted parts of vivid key photos, so you can help a child spot the full-size picture on page…. Children will enjoy finding the pictures, and discovering where in the world the picture is from.

10 Can we make suggestions to adults?

We had intended to put 4 suggestions on every spread, but there was no room – so ‘Ideas for Adults’ are on our website. In our new atlas for 3-5 year olds, Philip’s Early Years Atlas, there are ‘ideas for grown-ups’ on every spread, and the ideas for 5-year-olds overlap with the infants age-group. This is a new approach and we hope people will find it helpful. The suggestions are for teachers, classroom assistants, parents – for all adults.